Panic in Shanghai metro after man faints

Riders of the Shanghai metro visibly weren’t feeling very empathetic the day this video was filmed. On this surveillance footage, you can see a foreign rider faint and slide to the floor. The other passengers’ reaction was to immediately flee the scene. Just ten seconds later, nearly all of them had left the car; even once they were out, they were trying to get away so quickly that some of them pushed each other and fell to the ground.

A few seconds later, the rider regained consciousness and woke up in an empty metro car. Still unsteady on his feet, he got out at the next stop.

According to Shanghai metro officials quoted by Feng Huang News, this isn’t the first time riders have had an “excessive reaction”. In July, an overheated mobile phone started to smell like it was burning. Immediately, a rumour circulated that there was a fire. A passenger yelled something about an explosion, and people panicked and fled. Metro officials later reminded riders that crowds panicking could be much more dangerous than the incident that sets them off.

The website Shanghaiist reports that back in March, a woman died after having fainted in a staircase in the Shenzhen metro. Though she was still half-conscious after her fall, nobody came to her aid.